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MEMBER DIARY

Time To Defend Our Own

Much of the time we find ourselves fighting liberals and working to roll back the terrible legislation that they’ve passed. During elections we advocate for conservative candidates who promise to charge into the breech for us and we’re often frustrated by how little they do once we elect them. Every now and then a statesman comes along that’s worth defending and when we find them it’s critical we stand with them. Today I want your help doing just that.

In 2010, Texas conservatives gave a super-majority to the Republicans in the State House, replacing several moderate conservatives and ousting roughly a third of the Democrat delegation. With 101 out of 150 seats in the House, one might assume that the 2011 legislative session would go down in history as the advent of a conservative utopia in our state…and you’d be wrong.

Led by the liberal Republican Speaker of the House, Joe Straus, squishy Republicans failed to advocate a bold conservative agenda. There were good pieces of legislation passed (including the sonogram bill and Voter ID) but it was the kind of legislative agenda no member of a super-majority should consider laudatory.

A number of strong conservatives stood up against Joe Straus and his fellows to advocate the conservative agenda that Texans had demanded but no one worked harder or stood truer to his mandate than Rep. David Simpson.

Rep. Simpson’s 2010 race is the perfect example of a TEA Partier taking on a liberal establishmentarian and blindsiding them. David ran a campaign focused on voter contact and listening to the concerns of his constituents, promising to fight for them in Austin. Tommy Merritt (the incumbent representative) ignored his constituents until it was too late and when the primary election came around the voters made their preference crystal clear.

From day one of the legislative session, Representative Simpson set to work keeping the promises that he made to his constituents and never looked back. Even when it meant standing alone, David was consistent in promoting constitutional, limited government.

He’s probably best known for sponsoring the anti-groping bill to stop the TSA from unfounded invasive screening of airline passengers. While Texans were strongly in favor of the bill, Speaker Straus and fellow moderate/liberal Republicans ran out the clock and killed the bill (Here’s the awesome speech he gave after the bill was defeated).

David is exactly the kind of statesman that frightens liberals. He actually stands for the rhetoric he communicates during the campaign. As a result, he is being challenged in the Republican by the same pork-loving liberal that he beat two years ago, Tommy Merritt.

The question we’re faced with has implications far beyond David Simpson vs. Tommy Merritt, or even the Texas State House. The question we’re being asked is whether or not we will actually come to the defense of statesmen that do exactly what we ask of them.

The entire TEA Party movement has spent the past three years demanding legislators who stand for conservative principles and are willing to go to the mattresses for fiscal responsibility. We’ve bemoaned the fact that politicians listen to lobbyists and liberal interest groups instead of their constituents. Will we defend the good guys when they actually do what we ask or will we send them on a suicide mission?

If we are really interested in promoting statesmen who will risk their political careers to do the right thing then we need to be there to fight alongside them when liberals seek to punish their faithfulness.

Between now and March 3rd, Rep. Simpson is holding the Texas Independence Day money-bomb, raising money for his re-election battle against Tommy Merritt. I’m asking that you help us celebrate Texas Independence Day (March 2nd, 1836) by donating to David’s re-election campaign. Whether it’s $1 or $5000, each of us needs to do our part to send a message.

With your donation and David’s re-election, the message we send to Austin and broadcast across the nation will be that we are serious about promoting conservative statesmen. Alternatively, if we fail to defend somebody who has so steadfastly fought for our causes, we will broadcast to potential statesmen that we aren’t serious about winning and are just recruiting them to be political suicide bombers.